


Flirting with Danger

by Verbophobic



Category: Naruto
Genre: Cute, F/M, Romance, i have no idea what im doing, ish, not really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 05:24:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15722859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verbophobic/pseuds/Verbophobic
Summary: I wrote this while drunk. BUT it's actually a decent cute fluffy thing. An Oc bumps into Sabaku No Gaara one day and has no idea who he is. For she is nothing more than a civilian with little to no training or knowledge. Something though has the two sharing time together and soon it's time for the exams. This is just a small itty bitty story of what Gaara did over the month of training for the exams. Especially a few minutes here and there of each day.





	Flirting with Danger

She blinked, he blinked.

She blinked, he blinked.

She blink- This was not how today was supposed to be going. Inari tried to not pout as they were having a silent staring/blinking contest- though not really. In fact, she had nearly walked into this poor boy and now they were just quietly watching each other and it seemed they were having a blinking contest. “Hi.” Finally, Inari tried to break the silence and that seemed to break him out of his confused mimicry of her blinks. Instead of talking back or even acknowledging her the bright red haired boy turned to walk in the direction he had come from, apparently trying to walk away from her.

Now she had to know. Following after him she just silently walked at his side. The boy had indeed glanced at her momentarily before dismissing her as nothing more than a nuisance and ignored her like one would a fly. He knew she was there and he wished she wasn’t but she was also not worth the effort to rid himself of. So as the boy walked she followed fairly silently. Inari could tell a lot about the boy already, first being that he was not from here- here being Konoha- and the second being he was a young ninja. His silent gait and ever wary attitude was a dead giveaway though most wouldn’t even notice how he was on constant guard. 

The only reason Inari could tell was that she was used to the attitude of Naruto a long time ago before he was accepted by others. The young orphan had once been shunned and sometimes attacked so he’d always been on the lookout. This boy with glaring red hair walked the same way Naruto once had. Of course, Naruto made a show of looking around but he always knew when and where the perpetrators would be. 

The boy seemed to pause near an abandoned run-down playground and then he entered, walking right to a swing and sitting on it. Inari couldn’t help but notice the similarities between her best friend and this boy. Swings, they both had an affinity towards them and Inari tried to not show how knowing this seemed to break her heart. At a playground, the only place where one could play and not seem weird by being alone was on the swings. To use a slide would often be kinds racing to the top only to see who could go down faster, the see-saw wouldn’t work if one was by themselves, and the gym was never any fun to traverse alone. But if you could push off and swing your legs no one needed a friend for the swing set.

Sitting next to the redhead she pretended not to notice how his eyes widened just a centimeter before she pushed a bit to not really swing but more rock back and forth. This swing set didn’t seem strong enough to swing on properly as it was already creaking and groaning because of the weight of the two teenagers. Not that Inari minded or anything. 

That was the first time she’d hung out with the sand genin. The second time she learned his name but only because she’d heard a blonde girl yelling after him before her and a boy dressed in all black flinched away from a look he sent them. Now after finding him at the rundown swings every day for three full weeks, she settled into sitting silently with him. Talking wasn’t necessary as she had found out. He wasn’t one for replying and she hadn’t ever spoken of anything really worth talking about so she’d quickly silenced and instead reveled in being in the presence of someone other than Naruto.

Naruto…

The thought had her heart tightening and she tried not to feel too upset. Once upon a time ago, they’d been nearly inseparable but now she rarely saw him outside of seeking him out herself. He was growing and she was proud of him for it- oh so proud- but it was like she was being left behind. Naruto would spend all the time he could with his genin team and rarely tried to find her anymore. He had gained a family by being whom he was and doing what he did but in doing so he was leaving the first family he had behind. Her.

A creak caught her attention and she noticed Gaara was looking at her, the shifting of his weight just a bit had the swings shuddering dangerously. Inari smiled widely at Gaara and the boy scowled before looking away again. He was like a mirror Image of Naruto. The yellow boy was forever her friend but he was moving forward so fast she just couldn’t keep up while this boy he moved forward it seemed, but at a pace he wanted and not one others may think he should. Naruto fought tooth and nail to gain the respect he was slowly getting and she wouldn’t ever do anything to jeopardize it and as such she was letting him go without a fight.

Inari stood quickly and suddenly, the entire swing set shuddered and both her and Gaara watched the pole above it wide-eyed before it seemed to settle. With a grin she tilted her head as she watched him then ran off after Naruto who had just passed by, Gaara scowled deeply before trying to force himself to not care. He did care though, he liked her silence by his side and the fact she didn’t run from him. It had a calming effect knowing she wasn’t going to force him to talk nor would she talk his ear off and the fact was she held not an ounce of fear of him.

He knew she chased after Naruto now though. He’d seen the blond fly by and immediately after she’d followed. That boy annoyed Gaara to no end, even more than the green spandex-clad one who’d hurt him and survived. Every time Gaara looked at the blonde anger and hate filled him. THere was something about the cheeky genin that had Gaara wanting to throttle him simply because he reminded Gaara of himself. You could have been like that, you could have been happy like him, could have had the world like that fool.

But with the girl, whom he didn’t even know the name of, everything silenced. She had tried speaking at first before realizing he wasn’t going to reply and instead happily sat silently with him watching everything and relaxing. Now even that Naruto had and he didn’t. Somehow by just passing by Naruto lured her away as one might lure the night bugs with a lantern. Gaara fought not to clench his hands too tightly least he breaks one of the only two hanging swings left on this set, the other four all-around had long since broken one or both chains and one has completely disappeared.

Suddenly a bow was shoved under his nose and his head snapped up. His heart had clenched in fear as his sand didn’t react at all but upon looking at the wide grin of the brunette he knew why it hadn’t, it recognized her presence. “I don’t know if you like meat, so I got one meat and one veggie. This one’s the meat.” The bowl under his nose shifted and confusedly he took it from her as she moved to carefully sit on her abandoned swing. 

Gaara watched her as she began to eat her ramen and he looked down at… his? No one- no one had ever- and she had- His head pounded and he wanted nothing more than to scream in agony. Instead, his sand burst from his gourd, that had been carefully positioned against a bar to help keep the swings upright, to wrap around him and he teleported away. Back in his room- one out of four in a temporarily shared apartment with his siblings and mentor- he let go. The ramen clattered to the floor spilling all over and he screamed as he had the day his uncle had betrayed him and tried to kill him. 

It hurt- everything hurt- his heart pounded and he felt like- like- like he was dying inside. Something was torn and jagged and sawing back and forth in the middle of his chest. It hurt so much.

Inari had lifted her chopsticks with noodles clenched in them up and he was gone instantly. The swings shuddered so violently she practically threw herself away from them lest they topple on her. Sitting on the ground she watched as the metal finally gave and the last surviving bit of this place crumpled to the ground leaving her covered in ramen and dust. A frown played upon her lips before she ate what had managed to stay in her bowl, dust and all, before standing up and tossing her take out garbage into an old can. Walking away from the still settling dust she quickly headed to her home to get a change of clothes. The hot springs would make for a nice relaxation time she supposed.

Gaara returned the next day to the playground and nearly lost it again upon seeing that the swing set had completely fallen apart. He knew immediately that it had been his abrupt departure the previous day that had caused this. His eyes raked over the spot she normally sat and for once was relieved he saw no blood or sign of injury, just spilled ramen. 

Looking about his sand began to shift and slither until it made its way out of the playground. Following it he tracked her through the village to a small house and then he hid, waiting for something. He found her not long after arriving as she hurried out of the building and seemed to eagerly have a place in mind. She was no ninja, her breathing too loud, steps too awkward, perception lacking, she was nothing more than a civilian that had walked into him a few weeks ago and he tolerated.

Yet somehow she’d bewitched him. He’d never follow anyone else as he was her. He’d never let anyone else live for having stumbled into him. There was no tolerance for anyone being in his space. Least of all would he have allowed anyone that could cause him pain to live. She somehow has done all of it and survived. 

Into the hot spring house, she went and he hesitated before following further. He went to the roof and waited to see which of the three she went to, the men’s- he highly doubted but kept an eye on just in case- the women’s- most likely- or the unisex. All were empty at this time of day so he worried not about being caught peeping.

She exited out into the women’s side and looked around before stepping into the spring and- Gaara looked away and counted to a hundred before looking back. She was happily sunk down to her nose in the hot water and he relaxed. Looking about Gaara decided to keep her company and squatted down, reveling in the warmth that he found he missed from his home village. Suna was always baking unlike the village hidden in the leaves and he found he missed the sweltering sun and the heat that never bothered him. 

The sound of sloshing alerted him to either a new person entering or her leaving and glancing down he watched as she fixed her towel and hurried inside then out into the unisex spring. Her towel stayed tight around her as she sank into the water and without hesitation, he jumped down from the roof. She must have noticed him and moved to this spring. Landing upon the water he walked towards her before squatting next to her. He stayed nice and dry on top of the water while she happily sank a bit lower into the heat.

“We need a new hang out. Ours fell apart yesterday.” He grunted but said nothing. The warmth was sinking in now and he didn’t show it outwardly but he felt comfortable and relaxed once again. Perhaps here could be their hang out? She didn’t bother saying more yet as she knew he wouldn’t respond and she didn’t mind in the least. Inari actually liked the silence with Gaara over the constant, incessant, never-ending babble of Naruto.

Glancing out of the corner of her eyes she sunk lower into the water to hide her blush. Gaara was… handsome to say in the least. He may look scary- especially with his glares and unnerving quietness- but he was soft to the eyes. Inari was quick to glance away lest he notices her staring but it seemed he was too relaxed here. His eyes were closed and while he wasn’t smiling, he wasn’t scowling either. Gaara looked at peace. 

“Can you teach me how to do that? The on top of water.” She flicked a tiny bit of water onto his foot and he glanced down at her. “How about we meet up here tomorrow and you can show me?” Gaara just stared down at her, he neither agreed nor disagreed just stared at her with those teal pupilless eyes. Sinking down a bit further she nearly jumped as a hand touched her head.

“You have the basic understanding of Chakra?” His voice was- had she not been sunk as she was her jaw would have dropped and she would have gawped at the deep gravelly sound that went right through her. Instead, she nodded. She did she just never went to the academy like the other children. “Tomorrow, here.”

In less than a week, she learned to walk on water. In a little over a week her friend was gone. Her home village in shambles and her leader dead. But deep down she knew Gaara wasn’t truly responsible. He was only doing as his leader had bid, as the imposter Kazekage had ordered.

Inari hoped one day to meet him again, to be his friend again. For now, though, she was happy enough to scare the shit out of Naruto by standing on his ceiling to surprise him.


End file.
